States Report Thousands of Noncitizen Registrations on Voter Rolls Over Two Decades
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A review by New Jersey officials found 6,600 ineligible registrations, adding to a 25-year record of noncitizen entries on voter rolls across multiple states, with a few hundred alleged illegal votes.
New Jersey officials announced that a software error in the state’s motor vehicle system led to the registration of about 6,600 people who were not eligible to vote. Preliminary data show fewer than 400 of those individuals actually cast ballots in recent elections.
The discovery follows similar findings in other states over the past 25 years, where audits have uncovered noncitizen registrations and, in some cases, votes cast by individuals without citizenship. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said preliminary reviews identified up to 250,000 noncitizens on voter rolls in four states, including 35,152 in New Jersey.
"This shouldn’t be a red or blue state issue: ONLY Americans should elect American leaders," Mullin said in a statement.
Experts note that while federal law prohibits noncitizens from voting, there is no nationwide requirement for states to report such findings, leading to inconsistent auditing practices. Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, described the situation as a "major vulnerability" and suggested that policies in some states may increase the risk of registration errors.
"When you look at the policies that are pushed in blue states by the left, things like automatic voter registration, giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens, banning voter identification laws, no proof of citizenship to vote on and on, this is the inevitable outcome of all of those policies," Snead said.
State-level reviews since 2020 have reported noncitizen registrations in Louisiana, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and others, with varying numbers of alleged illegal votes. In Louisiana, 403 noncitizens were identified, 83 of whom had voted; Iowa found 277 registrations with 35 votes cast; Michigan reported 15 alleged noncitizen ballots; Ohio identified 597 and 117 apparent noncitizen registrations in separate years.
Legal scholars point out that the National Voter Registration Act does not explicitly address noncitizen registration, creating ambiguity about state obligations to audit and report such cases. The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has indicated ongoing investigations and prosecutions where evidence supports legal action.
"It is illegal for any noncitizen to vote in a federal election," a DOJ spokesperson said, adding that the agency is pressing states to clean their rolls.
Calls for uniform federal standards and more rigorous state-level verification continue as officials and advocacy groups debate how to address the identified vulnerabilities.